Spool or coil holder



Aug. 20, 1957 J. P. KING 2,803,447

. SPOOL OR COIL HOLDER 'Filed Oct. 31, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet l A'ITORNEY5Aug. 20, [957 J. P. KING 2,303,447

SPOOL OR con. HOLDER Filed 001:. 31, 1955 I '2 Sheets-Sheet 2 UnitedStates fatent G SPOOL OR COIL HOLDER John P. King, North Haven, Conrn,assignor to The Alfred E. King Company, North Haven, Conn, a corporationof Connecticut Application Gctoher 31, 1955, Serial No. 543,906

1 Claim. (Cl. 26347) This invention relates to a spool or coil holder,and more particularly to a device for supporting a plurality of spoolsor coils of wire for transportation from one place to another or forother purposes such as during annealing operations, for example.

In the handling of wire it is common to wind the wire upon spools orwind it in coils and handle the wire in this manner. When transportingspools or coils from place to place, it is desirable to have somesupporting device which will hold the spools or coils in relativelyfixed position so that one spool will not come in contact with anddamage the wire upon an adjacent spool.

Moreover, it is sometimes necessary to anneal wire, and it must for thispurpose be transported to the annealing oven and removed therefrom. Theholder of the present invention is designed for such purpose as it willso support the spools that there will be a free flow of hot gases aroundthe wire in addition to the fact that the spools are supported in spacedrelation so that the wire on one will be maintained out of contact withthat on another.

In addition the holders are so constructed that they may be stacked oneupon the other, and the hollow pipes upon which the spools are placedwill in such case combine to form a continuous flue so that theannealing gases will be carried through these pipes when the holders arestacked one upon another.

One object of the present invention is to provide a new and improvedspool or coil holder of relatively simple construction and which iseconomical to manufacture.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a spool orcoil holder which will be provided with all of the essential partsnecessary for a device of this character, but in which unessential partshave been omitted so as to provide a structure of most simple form andof relatively light weight, and one which is economical to manufacture.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a spool or coilholder of the character described which is so designed that one may bestacked or superposed upon another for use in an annealing oven, forexample, and so designed that provision is made for the free passage ofannealing gases around the coils supported upon the stacked holders.

To these and other ends the invention consists in the novel features andcombinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a spool or coil holder embodying myimprovements;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a broken sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 2.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, I have shown aspool or coil holder comprising a base plate which in this instance isof circular form and serves as the main supporting plate of the device.This plate is normally made of suitable metal and may be of PatentedAug. 20, 1957 any desired dimension as to thickness so as to be able tosupport the required weight.

This plate is provided with a central opening 11 (Fig. 3), and in thisopening is secured a central relatively large tubular member or pipe 12which serves as the lifting or carrying member by which the holder istransported from place to place. Within the upper end of the tubularmember 12 is welded a plate 13 having an opening 14 therein so as toprovide an annular member or flange extending inwardly from the wall ofthe pipe. It will be understood that lifting tongs can, for example, bedropped into the opening 14 and, by engagement with the lower surface ofthe flange or plate 13, be employed to lift the device so that it may bemoved from one place to another. Also it will be noted that the openings11 and 14 provide for the free passage of annealing gases, for example,through the central tubular member 12 so that the latter in effect formsa flue for such gases.

Also secured in openings in the plate 10 are an inner row of upstandingtubular supporting members 15 and an outer row of such members 16. Asshown in Fig. 3, these members are disposed in openings 17 and 18respectively of the plate 10. These members are left open at their upperand lower ends so as to provide gas flues when used in connection withannealing operations.

The tubes 15 and 16 are designed to serve as central supporting orholding means for the spools or coils of wire, the latter being shown indotted lines at 19 on Fig. 2. From this figure it will be noted thatwhile any desired number of tubes 15 and 16 may be employed, they arepreferably so arranged that they will be sufliciently far apart so thatthe wire of one spool will not engage or foul that on another spool eventhough there must be some play or looseness between each spool and itssupporting tube. That is, some clearance must be left between theoutside diameter of the supporting tubes 15 and 16 and the innerdiameter of the spool, so that the latter may be freely received uponthe tubular support and, while this clearance will permit some movementof the coils with respect to the support, the coils should be preventedfrom coming into contact with each other. As shown, the tubular supportsare arranged in an inner annular series about the central supportingtube 12 and an outer annular series, the latter containing approximatelydouble the number of supporting tubes as the former. The lower ends ofthese tubular members are inserted into the openings 17 and 18 and arewelded to the plate 10.

Below each of the tubular members 15 and 16 a guide or stacking ring 20is secured to the base plate 10, these rings being of suflicient size toreceive therewithin the upper ends of the tubular members 15 and 16 of asecond holder when one is stacked upon another.

Such a disposition of a plurality of holders is shown in dotted lines inFig. 3 where the rings 20, shown in full lines, receive the upper endsof the tubes 15 and 16 of a lower holder while the upper ends of thetubes 15 and 16, shown in full lines, are received in the rings 20 of anupper holder, the latter being shown in dotted lines. It will beapparent that this nesting of the holders one upon the other will alignthe tubular members 15 and 16 as well as the central tubular members 12so that these members will provide through lines for the passage of theannealing gases.

The plate 10 may also be provided with a plurality of openings 21, theseopenings being arranged between the rows or series of tubular members 15and 16 and are so proportioned that they are substantially tangent tothe coils of wire upon the supporting members 15 and 16, as shown inFig. 2. These openings also provide for the passage of annealing gasesupwardly about the outside of the coils.

the entire device will be lifted by the central tube 12. It

will also prevent warpage of the plate 10 at that point at which warpagemight occur due to the fact that this plate is subject to the heat ofthe annealing oven during annealing operations.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodi ment of myinvention, it will be understood that it is not to be limited to all ofthe details shown, but is capable of modification and variation withinthe spirit of the invention and within the scope of the claim.

What I claim is:

A spool-holding structure comprising a circular disklike base plate, aplurality of open-ended tubular members, each secured at one end to theplate and projecting upwardly therefrom in substantially parallel spacedrelation, one of said members being disposed substantially centrally ofthe plate to serve as a lift member, and the others of said tubularmembers being arranged in circular series around said central member andserving as 4 spool-holding members, said plate having openingstherethrough below and leading into each of said tubular members, guiderings secured to the lower surface of said plate below saidspool-holding members, the openings in said rings being dimensioned toreceive the upper ends of the spool-holding members of a secondstructure when one is superposed upon the other to align and locate thespool-holding members of both structures to provide a continuous fluetherethrough, said plate also being provided with additional openingsbetween said spoolholding members, bracing members of triangular formsecured at one edge to the lower end of said 'lift member and at anotheredge to the upper surface of the plate, and said lift member having aninwardly projecting flange at its upper end by which the structure-maybe lifted.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS415,391 Matteson Nov. ,19, 1889 614,768 Schwedtmann Nov. 22, 18982,230,310 Sammon et a1. Feb. 4, 1941 2,310,991 Pierce Feb. 16, 19432,409,742 Dougherty Oct. 22, 1946 2,601,443 -Mi1ler June 24, 1952

